The most famous of all jazz labels had it all! Five-star artists, original repertoires, ingenious associate artistic directors, exceptional sound recording, sublime album covers, a variety of genres (Bebop, Hard Bop, Soul Jazz, Modal Jazz, Free Jazz)… The label was launched in 1939 by Francis Wolff and Alfred Lion, two Germans who had fled the Nazi regime, and had everything going for it. Qobuz has picked 10 key albums from its ample catalogue. Some of them are celebrated classics. Others are underrated marvels. But all of them played a vital role in shaping Blue Note as a label.

Verve Records, the sound of America

Norman Granz hit the nail on the head when he defined his label as “the sound of America”. Admittedly, it was last century. And granted, it mainly just stuck to jazz. But even today, with a catalogue including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson and countless others, Verve represents one of the most important musical ventures of the twentieth century.

Five centuries of British choirs, five decades for the King's Singers

More than four thousand choirs are alive and well in the UK: the foundation of the quintessentially British musical tradition